I lost her, too, but
it's no reflection on my seamanship. We were drifting four days outside
there in dead calms. Then the nor'wester caught us and drove us on the
lee shore. We made sail and tried to clew off, when the rotten work of
the Tahiti shipwrights became manifest. Our jib-boom and all our head-
stays carried away. Our only chance was to turn and run through the
passage between Florida and Ysabel. And when we were safely through, in
the twilight, where the chart shows fourteen fathoms as the shoalest
water, we smashed on a coral patch. The poor old _Miele_ struck only
once, and then went clear; but it was too much for her, and we just had
time to clear away in the boat when she went down. The German mate was
drowned. We lay all night to a sea-drag, and next morning sighted your
place here."
"I suppose you will go back to Von, now?" Sheldon queried.
"Nothing of the sort. Dad planned to go to the Solomons. I shall look
about for some land and start a small plantation. Do you know any good
land around here? Cheap?"
"By George, you Yankees are remarkable, really remarkable," said Sheldon.
"I should never have dreamed of such a venture."
"Adventure," Joan corrected him.
"That's right--adventure it is. And if you'd gone ashore on Malaita
instead of Guadalcanar you'd have been _kai-kai'd_ long ago, along with
your noble Tahitian sailors.
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